Crush Liberalism

Not content with Wal-Mart, MD libs go after small businesses

Recall the recent post about how Maryland carried out the union thugocracy’s dirty work by attacking Wal-Mart with anti-worker legislation? The MD libs told us that they were targeting big businesses and not small ones. It’s not like liberals lie, right?

Yeah…right. From the premier Washington, D.C., newspaper, the Washington Times:

A Democratic lawmaker is aiming to force Maryland’s small businesses to pay a minimum level of employee health benefits, expanding the so-called “Wal-Mart tax” to nearly every business in the state.

The bill by Delegate James W. Hubbard, Prince George’s Democrat, would require businesses with fewer than 10,000 employees to spend 4.5 percent of payroll on employee health care or pay an equivalent amount to the state’s Medicaid program. Nonprofit businesses with fewer than 10,000 employees would have to spend 3 percent or give the money to Medicaid.

The proposal closely resembles the bill Democrats passed this year over the veto of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr., a Republican. It requires businesses with more than 10,000 employees to pay 8 percent of payroll on employee health benefits or pay it to Medicaid. Wal-Mart is the only business in the state that doesn’t comply.

However, the governor warned that the Wal-Mart bill was the first step toward a government-run, taxpayer-funded health system.

An Ehrlich spokesman said the prediction was rapidly coming true.

“The Maryland General Assembly has put virtually every small business in the cross hairs for a new tax,” spokesman Henry P. Fawell said. “Politicians are picking the winners and losers in the marketplace. … It is government-run health care.”

Notice that whenever a Democrat runs for president, we hear how he is a big-time proponent of small business and only wants to stick it to the big evil corporations? Those of us not consuming the left’s Kool-Aid have always known this to be a lie. Their voting record has run contrary to their “pro-small business” rhetoric.

Maryland is living proof that when it comes to business of any size, liberals just can’t help themselves: they’re anti-capitalistic to the core! When businesses leave the state, who will Maryland’s liberals blame? Probably George W. Bush!

February 22, 2006 - Posted by crushliberalism | Uncategorized